Have gradually been winding back the km and hours in training. Am tapering off before the Sydney 24 hr, which is a week away. I did the last “long run” of my preparation yesterday morning. Did 4 hours, 27km. This included 10kms racewalking at above race speed out and back along Riverside Drive in the Lane Cove River park. My 5k splits were 35 minutes out and 34 minutes back, a pace of about 7 min/k on a hilly course. Pace for the 24 hour race is 8:30/km, or 3:24 laps.
For the last eight days before the race I will take things pretty easily with short but intense efforts to keep myself sharp. Will do a short club run with NRG the Saturday before. My last track session will be the Wednesday before the race, some speed reps.
I did a mini-taper before my Six Foot Track training walk, and that worked well. Felt fresh and strong for the whole walk. I’d targeted sub 12 hours for that and came in at 9:15 pretty comfortably. Hopefully tapering properly will help even more with this race. Some people say they find tapering and resting incredibly frustrating. I’m not so sure, it is nice to have some easy days to enjoy!